


The Pet and the Stray

by Fangirl_Forever



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Animals, Fluff, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 19:46:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14504193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirl_Forever/pseuds/Fangirl_Forever
Summary: Bilbo is a pampered pet, Thorin used to be a pet but is now a stray. This is how they meet.





	The Pet and the Stray

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to Disney songs on YouTube and the song from the "Aristocats" came on and it made me think of Bilbo and Thorin as cats and this happened. I don't know if or when I will write more to this. 
> 
> *I don't own these characters.

                Bilbo was sunning himself, stretched out on the window sill, when he heard something. His ears twitched at the noise and a moment later he lifted his head, sighing, as his curiosity got the better of him. He tilted and twisted his head and ears until he the noise became clearer. It only took him a second to recognize it as mewling, most likely from a kitten, and he was instantly on his feet. He raced through the house to the front door and through the cat flap. Outside, the noise was louder, and he easily tracked it around the house to the back yard, making sure to move slowly so he wouldn’t scare whoever was outside.

                He stopped at the corner of the house. Now that he was closer, he could hear more than just mewling, there was a deep voice speaking as well, though he couldn’t make out the words. He cautiously peeked around the corner and was surprised to see a big tomcat and two small kittens sitting in front of the food bowl his humans kept outside for him when he stayed outside. There was still some food left in it from the day before when he had spent the day exploring the neighborhood and hadn’t come back inside until dark. He watched the tomcat, who looked far too regal to be a stray with his long, shiny black coat and striking blue eyes, nudge the smaller of the kittens, a scrawny dark brown tabby, towards the bowl. The kitten sniffed at the food and shook his head, his mewling growing more pitiful. The other kitten, a blonde tabby, licked the first kitten’s head comfortingly and the older cat sighed, his head hanging dejectedly.

                Bilbo’s heart hurt watching the scene and before he knew it he was standing up and stepping out from his hiding place. The other cat noticed the movement immediately and he shifted into a defensive position, covering the kittens protectively. Bilbo froze and sat back down on his haunches, trying to make himself seem non-threatening. Though he personally didn’t think he was scary at all with his curly, fluffy fur. He meowed a greeting, which the tomcat didn’t return, and then said, “That food is from yesterday. If you’re hungry, I can get you some fresh food from inside the house.”

                From behind the cat, who hadn’t moved beyond narrowing his eyes when Bilbo spoke, one of the kittens meowed loudly, demanding. The tomcat flinched as if he had been struck and slowly, reluctantly, he copied Bilbo and sat down, though he didn’t move from in front of the kittens. “We need milk,” he said gruffly.

                Bilbo frowned. “Milk?” he repeated, confused. Then his mind caught on and he realized how small the kittens were. He gasped and shot to his feet, ignoring the tomcat’s hiss as he did the same. “You’re wondering around with kits who need milk? Where’s their mother?!” Without thinking, Bilbo sprinted past the tomcat, who was too surprised to stop him. The kittens didn’t move as he stopped in front of them and started sniffing them over. The blonde one put himself in front of the smaller one, puffing his fur up to make himself look bigger, but the black one eagerly touched noses with Bilbo, his hunger forgotten apparently.

                “I’m Kili! This is my brother Fili, and that’s our uncle Thorin! Who are you?” the kitten meowed excitedly, looking up at Bilbo with big brown eyes. At his side, his brother huffed and relaxed slightly, though his eyes never stopped watching Bilbo cautiously. Bilbo felt the tomcat, Thorin, come up behind him and resisted the urge to turn around. He had to show the tomcat that he could be trusted by trusting him first so he ignored the presence behind him and smiled down at the kitten.

                “My name’s Bilbo. It’s very nice to meet you, Kili.”

                “Kili, Fili,” the tomcat called their names sharply and both kittens instantly ran around Bilbo and hurried to their uncle. Bilbo turned around in time to see Thorin tenderly licking each kitten’s ears before he straightened up and stared at Bilbo again. “Thank you for not announcing our presence to your humans. We won’t bother you anymore.” With that, Thorin picked Kili up by his scruff, the kitten instinctively going limp, and turned to walk away. Fili hurried to follow and keep up with his uncle’s footsteps.

                Bilbo frowned and called out, “Wait! Don’t go!” but Thorin ignored his calls and kept walking, though Fili did look back at Bilbo over his shoulder. Huffing, irritated, Bilbo ran and put himself in front of the tomcat, who glared at Bilbo and put Kili down. He opened his mouth, but Bilbo spoke before he could. “Now, listen here, you overgrown furball! I don’t care if you want to turn down food, but I can’t let two kits go hungry when I can help it so I can’t let you leave! So come back to the house so I can get the kits some milk! Please,” he added as an afterthought.

                Thorin just looked at him, speechless, for several seconds until Kili rubbed his head against Thorin’s chest, drawing the tomcat’s attention to himself. “I’m really hungry, Uncle Thorin,” Kili mewled. At his side, Fili quietly meowed his agreement and Thorin visibly deflated, exhaling heavily.

                He looked back at Bilbo and grudgingly said, “If you can, please get them some milk.”

                Bilbo nodded and started walking back to the house. He gently nudged Thorin with his tail and the tomcat slowly turned around to follow him. The kittens raced after Bilbo, Kili talking fast to Bilbo and Fili casting glances back at his uncle. Thorin returned each glance with a nod and a small smile and then Fili would look forward again.

                Back at the porch, Bilbo told them to hide out of sight and just wait. Casting aside his suspicion, Thorin herded his nephews under the porch steps and instructed them to be quiet and still. He curled his tail around them, tucking them close to him, and they watched Bilbo through the bottom of the porch.

                Bilbo hurriedly scarfed down the stale food to empty his bowl and then took a moment to muss up his fur a bit. Satisfied with his appearance, he started yowling as loud as he could. Within seconds, one of his humans opened the door, making strange noises that were supposed to comfort him. He let his human pet him but when they tried to pick him up, he easily slipped out of their arms and wound around their legs several times, continuing to yowl. Finally, after a minute of this display, the human noticed his food bowl was empty and they hurried back inside, only to return a moment later and fill the bowl with food.

                Bilbo sniffed the food and then turned away from it. He resumed yowling, hoping his human would catch on fast. To his dismay, and Thorin’s, the first human was joined by the second, and together they spent a few minutes checking Bilbo over and trying to pick him up and take him inside. But finally, the second human went back into the house and then came back out with a bowl of milk. Bilbo immediately stopped yowling and started purring. He rubbed against both his humans’ legs before he sat down and pretended to drink the milk. Now that he was satisfied, his humans gave him a few more pets before they disappeared inside and shut the door behind them.

                As soon as they were gone, Bilbo backed away from the milk. “You can come out now, it’s safe,” he meowed before he started grooming himself. He hated when his fur was messy. Thorin and his nephews slowly crept out from under the porch. Bilbo smiled and reassured them it was safe. Then, Thorin nodded and both kittens raced for the milk bowl, which was just low enough for them to reach. Fili got to it first, but being the good brother he was, he waited until little Kili had had a few gulps before he started drinking himself. Thorin sat down several inches away from Bilbo and watched them, visibly relieved.

                Bilbo finished his grooming and cleared his throat. He tried to study Thorin without being obvious and he could see that under all that fur, Thorin was skinny. Not dangerously so, but it was plain to see that he wasn’t eating like he was supposed to be. Frowning, Bilbo got up and pushed his food bowl over to Thorin. “Eat,” he said simply. Thorin looked at him, stunned, before he looked down at the bowl. He started to lower his head, only to straighten back up and shake himself before he politely declined. Hissing softly, Bilbo pushed the bowl closer and said, “Eat.”

                Thorin glared at him but after several seconds of Bilbo returning his glare, Thorin muttered something under his breath and bent his head to eat. He ate slowly, refusing to give in to his hunger and scarf it all down as fast as he could without choking. After several bites, his hunger abated slightly, and his stomach stopped hurting. He sighed in relief and continued eating, taking small bites. He kept his eyes on his nephews as they drank the milk, and then when they had had their fill they sleepily curled up against Bilbo’s side, purring happily because their bellies were full.

                Shocked, Bilbo looked at Thorin, unsure what to do. Thorin resisted the urge to hiss at the smaller cat and scare him away from his nephews and instead simply nodded. Bilbo nodded back and then laid down, curling himself around the kittens. They snuggled up close to him and started kneading his stomach. He smiled and couldn’t stop himself from grooming them both. Within a couple minutes, the kittens were fast asleep, purring and kneading in their sleep. Bilbo kept licking the kittens until Thorin finished eating. When Thorin stood up and backed away from the bowl, which was still half full, Bilbo sighed and prepared himself to stand up. Only to have Thorin push the bowl to him and then sit down behind him, watching over all three of them protectively.

                Bilbo purred and meowed his thanks, then he started eating the food Thorin had left for him. As he ate, to his surprise, Thorin groomed him. Bilbo, who had been alone ever since his humans took him from his family, melted into the touch, his purrs growing louder. For the next few minutes, neither of them spoke. Bilbo kept eating, taking long pauses between bites just to enjoy being groomed, and Thorin kept grooming. And then suddenly, Thorin spoke.

                “Their mother is dead.”

                Bilbo had been about to take another bite of food but he gasped at those words and he looked at Thorin, feeling sad for him, but Thorin wasn’t looking at him. “How?” he asked quietly.

                “She was hit by a car.”

                Bilbo meowed softly and leaned back so he could rub his head against Thorin’s legs. The kittens mewled softly at the movement but settled back down when he tucked them against his belly again. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Didn’t she have a human? What about you, don’t you have a human? Why are you out here, wondering around like strays?”

                Thorin sighed and dropped his head, staring at the ground. “We both had humans. We lived just a couple streets away from each other, so we would visit often and go exploring. She met this one stray and decided she wanted him. But when her human found out she was having kits sired by a stray, her human decided she didn’t want her. They took her someplace and left her. They locked her up in a cage. She waited for days, thinking her human would come back. But she didn’t. So, she managed to escape and made her way back to my home. I helped her hide close by and brought her food. After she had the kits, she started going out looking for her stray. That’s when she was hit by the car.” After his explanation, Thorin looked at his nephews. “I promised her I would take care of them, and I knew my human wouldn’t want them, so I took them and ran away. That was four days ago.”

                Bilbo gasped. “You’ve been out on your own with them for four days?! Oh no, that just won’t do. No more of that,” he said determinedly, deciding in his head. “You can stay here, at least until the kits are older and don’t need milk. I’ll help you hide and bring you all food and milk. I know plenty of hiding places that my humans don’t know about. You’ll be safe.”

                Thorin considered Bilbo’s offer and if it hadn’t been for Fili and Kili, sleeping so peacefully against the smaller cat, he would have turned it down. But, for his nephews, he would do anything. So, he nodded, and Bilbo beamed up at him. Then, Bilbo’s tail brushed against him and the small cat said, “You can rest, you know. I’ll keep watch for you.”

                Against his better judgement, Thorin laid down behind Bilbo. Bilbo licked his ears and Thorin leaned into it, exhaling softly. He closed his eyes and pressed close to Bilbo, relaxing for the first time in days.

**Author's Note:**

> So in my mind, basically, Thorin and Dis were raised for breeding and when Dis became pregnant by a stray, her owner left her at a shelter because they didn't want to deal with mixed kittens. And that's also why Thorin is on the run with Fili and Kili, because he thinks his owner wouldn't want them and he doesn't want to lose them. I tried writing all that from his perspective and I'm not sure how understandable it was, so here you go!  
> Also, Fili and Kili are from the same litter, it was just the two of them. And they are a few weeks old, old enough to start weaning but not quite old enough to be completely off milk.


End file.
